Jade Harley
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Jade Harley |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | John Egbert (brother), Becquerel (guardian), Grandpa Harley (biological father, former guardian), Karkat Vantas (patron troll), Davesprite (ex-boyfriend) |
| Fandom: | Homestuck |
| Other: | Pesterchum handle: gardenGnostic |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
Jade Harley is a main character of the webcomic Homestuck and the fourth main character that appears to the reader.
Canon
Jade's interests include gardening, nostalgic cartoons, nuclear physics, miscellaneous gadgetry, shooting, furries, and playing the bass. At the start of Homestuck, Jade, along with the other Beta kids (John, Rose, and Dave) is 13. She lives on an unspecified island in the Pacific Ocean with her dog, Becquerel. Bec is a First Guardian, a creature of immense power linked to the Green Sun. She was previously raised by Grandpa Harley, until he was killed by Tavros Nitram by controlling Bec while saving a younger Jade's life.
The island is otherwise uninhabited, so her only known interactions are with Bec (who is of unknown but presumably dog-like intelligence) and with the other Beta kids via the chat program Pesterchum.
In the early acts of Homestuck, Jade has narcolepsy, falling asleep at random, often narratively inconvenient times. This is later revealed to be due to Vriska Serket's attempts at mind control to make her life worse. The version of her from the post-Retcon timeline which was created after John saved Paradox Space with his retcon powers still seems to have narcolepsy, as shown during her time on the battleship and having to spend most of it without John and Davesprite. It is likely her sadness and exhaustion reactivated the parts of her brain that Vriska used to make her sleepy.
Jade's sprite is a mix of the corpse of her dream-self and Bec. This results in her being fused with Bec when she god-tiers, making her powers as a Witch of Space much more powerful.
Fandom
Due to Jade's isolation in canon, and the lack of explanation for how she managed to raise herself/be raised by a dog, many Jade-centric fics explore the consequences of her isolation and/or her first experiences in meeting other people. This was compounded when her three year journey across the Yellow Yard with John and Davesprite was retconned in-universe to John and Davesprite being killed shortly after beginning the journey, resulting in her spending three years alone after interacting with other humans in person for approximately a day.
Mary Sue accusations (too powerful, too cheerful etc.), raised by a dog, dog tier Jade etc.